From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe acid testthe acid testPROVEa way of finding out whether something is as good as people say it is, whether it works, or whether it is true People ask if the team is good enough. This match will be the acid test. → acid
Examples from the Corpus
the acid test• The acid test of a good leader is the extent to which they select a style to suit the circumstances.• The critical question, the acid test of socialism, is the distribution of power at the point of production.• For my own small study, the acid test was one of relevance. 